The invention relates to a method and system for testing audiovisual stimuli, such as television series, commercials, etc. from a complex of interactions between stimuli, consumers and environmental factors, which system comprises:
one or more sources of audiovisual stimuli;
means connected to aid sources for presenting the stimuli to respondents;
switching means to be operated by said respondents for issuing commands such as a command to end the presentation of a stimulus;
registering means for registering the moments at which the switching means are operated.
Such a system is known from the American patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,67,964. This prior art system is related to testing commercials according to a method whereby the commercial to be tested forms part of a program that can be selected by a test person from an offered amount of different programs. Tests can be carried out for instance on sequence effects with other commercials. A commercial to be tested is preceded or followed by one or more xe2x80x9cfillerxe2x80x9d commercials. The contemporaneously selected program is as measurement data registered through a video recorder. Furthermore the moments in time on which selection or zapping operations are carried out are measured. The method strives to imitate a realistic situation whereby one program from an offered number of different stimuli can be selected comparable with the selection of a channel on a TV-apparatus.
Different from this patent there is a larger need in interested circles, such as producers, program makers, campaign leaders, opinion pollers and also advertisers for accurate information about the viewing behaviour of consumers. For advertisers it is for instance important to know if all consumers continue to following the broadcast during a commercial break. Or does one walk away? Does one switch over to another program? What are the moments on which the attention of the public for instance for a commercial is lost completely or at least partly and one decides to switch away or direct the attention to something else? What are the reasons for switching away? Is the advertisement too well known or does one switch away for other reasons? Is the behaviour of men different from the behaviour of women, of younger people different from the behaviour of older people, etc.? Which sub-groups of for instance the Dutch population do exhibit a specific behaviour, when, under which circumstances and in what degree? The problem of the advertiser is not so much only the range of the TV-transmitters but more the reception by the public.
A number of environmental factors, whether or not simultaneously, can be of influence on maintaining the attention of respondents. Besides that there are a number of factors which are related to the commercials as such: is the presented product in a commercials relevant? Is the commercial irritating, worn out or does it comprise unattractive scenes?
Under normal conditions all consumers are able to follow (view, observe) all advertisements completely at least once in a period. Part of the audience will disappear as soon as the offered product appears to be not relevant for them. That is an unavoidable phenomena. However, a switching operation caused by other reasons such as unattractive scenes in an advertisement for a product which is relevant for the respondent, could be prevented if one knows the reason for the switching operation and, in this example, is able to identify the unattractive scenes.
It is more the object of the advertisers to draw the attention to a mark, a product and a message and to communicate thereabout through a commercial. Premature switching away could imply that the mark, the product and/or the message are not brought under the attention and that therewith obtaining the communication goal is excluded.
It follows from the above that the need of amongst others the above-mentioned interested circles relates more specifically to the ability to determine and specify the communicative performance of audio visual stimuli, such as motion pictures, musical movies, opera, theatre, music, orchestras and furthermore audio visual stimuli such as video programs, t.v.-series, commercials, news programs and promotions and furthermore of speeches, lectures, announcements and debates for instance for determining and following the opinions in relation to politicians or theatre for instance for selecting actors for roles etc., etc.
The communicative performance of audio visual stimuli can be determined only by measuring, registrating and analysing a complex of interactions between amongst other stimuli, consumers and environmental factors. The viewing behaviour of consumers can thereby be considered as one of the interaction aspects.
Registrating programs selected by a respondent, together with the switching times in agreement with the known prior art method results into data which are non-sufficient as such and which are non-sufficiently refined to be able to determine therefrom in a reliable and accurate manner the performance capabilities of audio visual stimuli. More specifically the method is not adequate because:
it is mainly based on the registered data of just some test persons and some stimuli;
apart from measurements related to the influences of the sequence of the commercials there is no registration of conditions and the environmental factors which all together have a separate influence on maintaining the attention of respondents on a stimulus and as a result thereof on the respondent""s behaviour;
mainly rough data are produced which only after analysis and processing may lead to results which are relevant and interpretable for performance capabilities and which are related to other stimuli.
The object of the invention is now to provide another method and system for determining and specifying reliably and accurately the communicative performance of audio visual stimuli. This object is fulfilled by a system which is specified in the attached claims.